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David Cronenberg poses some interesting questions on the nature of evil in his latest thriller. Eastern Promises is a brooding, atmospheric snapshot of a murky London underworld. Apart from focusing on a crime subculture hitherto untreated by films, it presents a mesmerising study of what happens when the world we know brushes up against what lies beneath. Read the rest of this entry »
This film has everything going for it except for one small detail: it just didn’t make me laugh that much. I mean, I enjoyed it, I appreciate what they were trying to do, and it really was very well executed – it just wasn’t all that funny! Read the rest of this entry »
A beautifully shot film in a gorgeous location, this could have been a really great film but for a bit of a sloppy plot and a pretty sub-standard supporting cast. Nolte is very good as the rough-diamond heroin-junkie ex(?)-thief, and his character is nicely developed, but the heist plot is rather unconvincing.
I often wonder how Tim Powers concocts the base premise for each of his books. Does it strike him in a blinding flash of insight, or does he slowly tease it together from a sustained mental effort of conceptualisation? Because it seems to me that, for him, devising the central concept to underpin the story almost gets him halfway there. Of course, it would only be the tip of the iceberg as far as the hard work of writing a book goes. But the story premise contains the underpinning appeal of all Powers’ work, and I think it is where his true genius resides.
Hardly a stranger to controversy, DH Lawrence really went to town on some of society’s more sensitive aspects with his largely unheralded later work, The Plumed Serpent. Mixing blasphemy, violence, sensuality and issues of race and gender with a sneering contempt for both developed and third world contemporary cultures, it’s an explosive work even for today’s readers. For the folks back in 1926, it must have seemed an utterly alien piece of literature, which probably helps explain why it was considered a critical failure at the time. Read the rest of this entry »
“I’m B, and I’m proud”. That seems to be the attitude of this schlocker from director David R Ellis. This is a B-movie that revels in its own crappiness. Indeed, the concept is so hilariously ridiculous, it generated a pre-release internet hype not seen since The Blair Witch Project back in 1999. Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone is raving about Daniel Day-Lewis in this and the hype is more than justified – he is stupendously good. The entire film hangs off the strength of his performance, and that is both a good thing and a bad thing. Read the rest of this entry »
